Dallas Voice: Making lives easier for LGBT families

The new executive director of Family Equality Council stops in Dallas for fundraiser and calls his group the LGBT voice for families

Gabriel Blau calls his work at Family Equality Council personal.

In 2008, he and his husband adopted a child, making them one of the three million LGBT parents in this country. Six million children of all ages have LGBT parents, Blau said.

Family Equality Council supports those families with advocacy work to ensure all families are respected. Blau has been in his position as executive director for just three months and said he was attracted to the organization because of what he called its groundbreaking work. He will be in Dallas on Dec. 6 for a fundraiser at a private home.

Blau described Family Equality Council as the LGBT voice for families.

“We have a crisis in this country,” he said.

He said there are 400,000 kids in foster care and 100,000 eligible for adoption.

“There are qualified adults but significant barriers to them adopting,” he said.

Every study indicates gays and lesbians make excellent parents, but changes to laws don’t always reflect those studies, he said, citing a recent amendment to Virginia adoption law. That state recently added what it called a “conscience clause” that allows agencies to discriminate against same-sex or transgender parents.